I don't have time to read any of this, but maybe you all do: Polygon's Matt Leone wrote a very, very long article (over 30,000 words!) about FFVII's making that involved interviews with 35 people (including Sakaguchi, Nomura, Kitase, Uematsu, Amano, Nojima, Naora, and others). Should be some good stuff in here: Final Fantasy 7: An Oral History

(Also, if you're wondering why they refer to the game as "Final Fantasy 7" instead of "Final Fantasy VII", I've noticed for awhile now that Polygon always replaces Roman numerals in game titles with Arabic ones. I have no idea why )